The objective of this research is to inventory and prepare a descriptive catalog of the plants in current use as folk remedies in Middle America -- the Bahamas, West Indies, adjacent shore of northern South America, Central America and Mexico. During 7-1/2 years of field work (under NIH grant 5 R01 CA 07966 and Contract 71-2274, "Search for Possible Plant Causes of Esophageal Cancer"), it was found that 102 folk-medicine plants were being ingested as decoctions on the island of Curacao, but because of the socio-economic gap between the populations- at-large and the professions, such customs were unknown to those in charge of the problems of health, disease and mortality. Three of these plants, in bio-assay, proved highly carcinogenic. In a brief survey of Coro, Venezuela, 57 plants were found to be in very common use, including 2 of the highly carcinogenic species of Curacao. Field work in coastal South Carolina (1971-72) revealed 60 folk-medicine plants, some chemically related to the suspect plants of Curacao. All 3 study areas have a high rate of esophageal cancer. Many of the plants are similarly used throughout Middle America and may be linked to other disease patterns. Some of the plant materials and practices have been introduced into the United States by West Indian and Latin American immigrants and may function as unknown factors in illness in this country. Information on these folk remedies is not readily available. Much of the local literature (in Spanish, Dutch and French as well as English) is out-of-print or widely scattered in obscure sources. The Principal Investigator has acquired a body of first-hand knowledge of many of these plants, has photographed and collected specimens of many of them, and has accumulated rare records of their usage. The botanical subject file of the Morton Collectanea, University of Miami, contain a wealth of information on the entire range of plants used, in the past or present, as remedies in the American tropics. It is proposed to undertake a minimum of field work to complete an inventory of those in active use and to compile a descriptive and partly illustrated report on current plant remedies of Middle America, to serve as a guide for health professionals.